Buehrle picks up league-leading seventh win as Blue Jays down Angels 7-3

TORONTO – Mark Buehrle picked up his Major League-leading seventh win of the season with the help of the long ball Monday night as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Los Angeles Angels 7-3 at the Rogers Centre.

The veteran left-hander gutted it through six-plus innings despite not possessing his best stuff, running his record to 7-1 before a crowd of 13,603. Buehrle gave up six hits and walked five but was able to limit the Angels to just a pair of runs even though he had base runners in each of his final five innings.

It marks the first time in his 15-year career that Buehrle has won seven of his first eight starts.

Jose Bautista and Brett Lawrie gave Buehrle all the offence he needed.

Each drilled second-deck home runs as the Blue Jays (19-20) ended a three-game losing streak and salvaged the finale of the four-game series.

Bautista opened the scoring with a three-run homer in the first. The Blue Jays right-fielder took an 85-mile-per-hour change-up from C.J. Wilson into the second deck for his 10th home run of the season.

The blast, Bautista’s 178th as a Blue Jay, moved him to within one of Jesse Barfield for fifth all-time on the club’s home run list.

Bautista, who had his club-record streak of reaching base in consecutive games to start the season snapped at 37 on Sunday, went three-for-four on the night to push his season average to .300.

Mike Trout got the Angels (19-18) right back into the game in the third inning. With two on and two out, the L.A. slugger hit a 2-1 change-up over the head of Blue Jays centrefielder Colby Rasmus and off the wall for a two-run double, cutting the Toronto lead to 3-2.

The Blue Jays had a great chance to give themselves a little insurance in the bottom half of the inning. But after loading the bases on two singles and a walk, Edwin Encarnacion flied out to centre and Adam Lind struck out, one of Wilson’s eight strike outs on the night.

Lawrie, returning to the line-up after missing six games with a sore right hamstring, pounded the first pitch he saw from Wilson in the sixth inning for his seventh home run of the season. The Toronto third baseman flipped the bat away and admired the ball, which sailed into the second deck in centre field.

Rasmus left the game in the sixth inning with tightness in his right hamstring.

Down 5-2, the Angels again made it interesting in the seventh. A pair of singles to open the inning chased Buehrle with the heart of the L.A. line-up coming to the plate. But, Toronto reliever Steve Delabar struck out Trout and then coaxed a well-turned 6-4-3 double play from Albert Pujols to end the threat.

C.J. Cron hit a one-out home run off Delabar in the eighth to make it 5-3, but Toronto’s Juan Francisco had a two-run single in the bottom of the inning to give the Blue Jays bullpen a little comfort.

Casey Janssen, making his first appearance of the season after returning from a stint on the disabled list with a back injury, worked a hitless ninth.

Notes: The Blue Jays begin a three-game series Tuesday against Cleveland to close out a nine-game home stand. The Indians RHP Justin Masterson (2-1, 3.86 E.R.A.) faces Toronto’s RHP R.A. Dickey (3-3, 4.72 E.R.A.) at 7:07 p.m…Before Monday’s game, the Blue Jays recalled RHP Chad Jenkins and INF Jonathan Diaz from AAA Buffalo as RHP Sergio Santos was placed on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to May 10 with a right elbow strain…Toronto’s Edwin Encarnacion was named American League Player of the Week on Monday after hitting .321 (9-28) in seven games with seven extra-base hits, including four home runs, and 10 runs batted in.